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In a U.S. First, Baby Is Delivered From Womb Transplanted From Deceased Donor

TUESDAY, July 9, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic announced that they've achieved a first in North America: delivering a baby from a uterus that had been transplanted from a deceased donor.

The healthy baby girl was delivered by C-section in June. This is only the second time such a delivery has happened worldwide, the first having occurred in Brazil in December.

"We couldn't have asked for a better outcome. Everything went wonderfully with the delivery, the mother and baby girl are doing great," Dr. Uma Perni, a Cleveland Clinic maternal-fetal medicine specialist, said in a hospital news release.

Perni stressed that "it's important to remember this is still research. The field of uterus transplantation is rapidly evolving, and it's exciting to see what the options may be for women in the future."

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the baby's mother required a uterus transplant due to a condition called uterine factor infertility, which affects about one in every 500 women of childbearing age.

The unnamed woman was in her mid-30s when she joined an ongoing clinical trial at Cleveland Clinic, exploring the possibility of uterus transplant to help her bear a child.

In late 2017, the patient underwent transplant surgery and received a uterus from a deceased donor. In late 2018, she conceived through in vitro fertilization, her medical team said.

"Through this research, we aim to make these extraordinary events ordinary for the women who choose this option. We are grateful to the donor and her family," Tzakis added. "Their generosity allowed our patient's dream to come true and a new baby to be born."